Tag Archives: traditions

With Christmas quickly approaching, I figured I’d love to give one winner an early Christmas present. The contest is simple. All you have to do is share one special holiday tradition in the comments and you’ll be entered to win $15.00 Strandbucks to buy yourself a few books on your wish list at Siren-Bookstrand!

Contest will run through Christmas Eve (9:59 pm EST so I can choose a winner before midnight), and the winner will have a present from Santa for Christmas Day.

I’ll start. No, I’m not eligible for the prize 😉

One special holiday tradition we share in my family is watching Polar Express while enjoying hot chocolate. My husband and I first saw the movie in the theaters, despite the not-so-good reviews we read in the papers and online. We LOVED it! It was a different kind of movie, not filled with talk and action, but lent a wonderful experience and excitement in a subtle way. I don’t think there is anything I didn’t like about the movie. Sure, the characters didn’t have names. Sure, it wasn’t a musical like most children’s movies. Sure, it had a quirky sense of humor. To me, the fact that it was different made it special.
I bought it as soon as it came out on DVD. My son (who is now 9 and still loves the movie) and I watched it, and I’ve turned it into a tradition, something special my husband and I can share with our children. That same year, Santa brought my son a Lionel Polar Express train, and it goes up under the tree year after year (we’d do my grandfather good, a man who loved his planes, trains, and automobiles, and collected Lionel trains). This year was the first year my daughter watched it and is enamored by it. Previously, she’s been too young, but she loves it so much it’s on all the time. “Chocolate” has become a very common request, as well as “choo-choo train” and “elf”.

But this is what the holidays are all about. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, or any holiday, it’s about making memories that last a lifetime, and that can continue from generation to generation.